Image editing software may be used to view and modify digital images. A digital image may be composed of one or more picture elements (pixels), each having color information. The color information of each pixel may be encoded as a red, green, and a blue component, each having an intensity value of between 0 and 255 for an eight-bit image, for example. According to other examples, the image may be a 16- or 32-bit image with corresponding intensity ranges. The combination of the three components creates an individual color pixel, and several pixels together create a digital image.
Image editing software may be used to perform various modifications to a digital image (“image”). For example, image editing software can be used to resize an image, alter colors of an image, change the brightness and other characteristics of an image, or modify selected portions of an image. The image editing software may include various palettes or dialogues with editing tools that may be used to effect these changes, including palettes or dialogues having adjusters to change color components for portions of an entire image.
Image editing software may also be used to convert a color image to a grayscale image. A brightness of each pixel of an image may be determined, for example by averaging the individual red, green, and blue components of a pixel. The brightness can then be applied to a black to white continuum to produce the gray pixel. However, such grayscale converted images often have flat contrast and indistinct shadows and highlights.
Thus, what is needed is image editing software without the limitations of conventional techniques.